Market intervention

A government or public authority action that changes market prices, quantities, or trading conditions instead of leaving them entirely to private exchange.

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Price ceiling: A legal maximum price that sellers may charge for a good or service. It holds prices below market-clearing levels, often changing shortages and allocation.
Externality: A cost or benefit of an activity that affects people not directly involved in it. Taxes and subsidies can bring these spillover effects into private decisions.
Laissez-faire: An economic doctrine favoring minimal government interference in private economic activity. It represents the alternative of leaving prices and exchange largely to private decisions.
Deadweight loss: The loss of total economic surplus when a market outcome departs from an efficient allocation. Some interventions prevent mutually beneficial trades or redirect resources toward lower-value uses.
Price floor: A legal minimum price that buyers must pay for a good or service. It prevents prices from falling to market-clearing levels, sometimes creating surpluses.
Public goods: Goods that are non-excludable and non-rival, making private provision difficult to sustain. Public provision or funding can address incentives that leave these goods undersupplied.
Command economy: An economic system in which public authorities centrally direct production and allocation. It contrasts limited market interventions with comprehensive administrative control.
Rent-seeking: Efforts to gain economic advantage through political influence rather than productive activity. Rules and selective benefits can create incentives to lobby for private gains.
Pigovian tax: A tax intended to make private decision-makers bear the external costs of their activities. It raises the price of activities whose costs fall partly on others.
Monopoly: A market structure in which one seller supplies a product without close substitutes. Competition policy and price regulation can constrain the power of a dominant seller.